Rampage: A Spectacle of Destruction Starring Dwayne Johnson
An adventure action film relying solely on an abundance of special effects and the charisma of Dwayne Johnson, featuring animals subjected to mutations and transformed into fantastical monsters.
The film centers around Davis, a former special forces operative who, disillusioned with people, dedicates himself to animals. In a California national park, he monitors the gorilla population, led by the intelligent albino alpha, George. Secret genetic experiments conducted by a greedy corporation lead to a catastrophic event: George undergoes a mutation that drastically increases his size, making him uncontrollable and ferocious. As Davis tries to figure out how to help his furry friend, two more overgrown beasts appear across the country. A pathogen transforms a wolf and an alligator into monsters, and now three gigantic animals threaten the safety of Chicago. The army is powerless against these agile and nearly invulnerable creatures, but Davis doesn’t lose hope of restoring George’s mind as he wreaks havoc on the city’s skyscrapers.
It’s arguably a career achievement when viewers and critics alike can accurately predict the kind of film they’re about to see based solely on one name in the credits. Few achieve such recognition – Nicholas Cage and Bruce Willis might be added with a stretch, and Jason Statham is certainly on the list – but Dwayne Johnson has undeniably become just as “predictable.” This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; studios highly value predictability, and audiences appreciate that the actor has found a specific on-screen persona that he rarely deviates from. However, this repetition, unfortunately, turns any analysis of The Rock’s new works into a concise “It’s a movie with Johnson in the lead role,” leaving little else to discuss in depth.
Shortly before the release of “Rampage,” director Uwe Boll threatened WB with a lawsuit for using the title. Boll had already released a trilogy of action films under the same name (“Rampage”), and the controversial filmmaker believed that the new film would mislead his fans.
The new adventure action film “Rampage” simultaneously resembles almost all of The Rock’s previous films. It features the mass destruction of “San Andreas,” the impressive stunts of the “Fast & Furious” franchise, battles with mysterious creatures from “Journey 2,” the humor of “Jumanji,” and, of course, the actor’s signature charm, which he freely uses in every scene. It’s not a cheap compilation; “Rampage” does have its own plot, but the filmmakers seem to have decided not to fix what isn’t broken. If you have Dwayne Johnson, simply placing him among the rubble in a heroic pose is enough to get the job done and ensure profit.
To be fair, the creators of “Rampage” hedged their bets. In case audiences have grown tired of The Rock, they introduced computer-generated monsters that are as gigantic as they are ridiculous. The film is loosely based on (one hesitates to call it an “adaptation” of) the old arcade game of the same name, where characters transformed into huge gorillas, wolves, and lizards and went on a skyscraper-destroying rampage. However, this doesn’t excuse the film; “Rampage” is spectacularly silly and completely unscientific. But viewers watching such films aren’t concerned with biology; they want grandiose battles and large-scale destruction.
Action-Packed Spectacle
“Rampage” delivers on this front. If you’re expecting action, there’s plenty of it. The third act, unlike many more modest productions, stretches for a good hour, during which so much explodes, falls, and crashes that there’s no time to think about the meaning or logic of what’s happening. “Rampage” is like “Transformers,” but with animals instead of robots, featuring plenty of spectacular destruction, shootouts, and chases, but minimal thought. Even the local scientists spout nonsense, let alone the soldiers, “cowboys,” and other people who don’t particularly understand the meaning of the word “pathogen.”
Actor Jason Liles played the role of George the gorilla using motion capture technology. This required special effects specialists to use 32 special video cameras, a unique costume designed specifically for the film, and consultations with real biologists.
Missed Opportunities
Furthermore, the film doesn’t want to be just an action movie, but it lacks the depth to be anything more. The initial encounter with the wolf hints at a decent horror element, but this atmosphere of terror quickly dissipates. The Rock tries to joke a couple of times, but it comes across as awkward, formulaic, and even terribly vulgar in the end. The comedic parts, handled by Jake Lacy and Malin Akerman, are completely out of place. They turn their scenes into a circus, which is particularly inappropriate against the backdrop of falling skyscrapers that still remind Americans of the tragedy of 9/11.
The combination of all these elements makes “Rampage” a spectacle, but not art. It’s not a film, but an attraction, a high-quality attraction, but as meaningful as a roller coaster ride. The Rock decided at some point that his place is in such films, where he needs to act not with his face and eyes, but with his torso and biceps, where drawn monsters replace logic, and a green screen allows for any scenery to be drawn, where the viewer will remember not the moral, but a crude joke. Well, that’s his choice. It’s impossible to stop Johnson anyway; neither tsunamis nor crocodiles could do it. Next up is “Skyscraper,” which is already predictable: “A movie with Dwayne Johnson, and that says it all.”